The Story Behind the Idea

I was not planning on creating a mermaid deck. A friend of mine messaged me, asking if I would help him make a deck with mermaids. To which I replied, "Mermaids?" I came to understand that Ver-Thandia, Ur-Dine, High Elixir, and Skuldia were all mermaid cards. I spent a good half hour with him creating the original concept deck. It didn't pan out as we wanted it. I play tested the deck and made fixes along the way. I am now happy with the build and hope you enjoy the concept of this article.

The Concept

The basic idea of this deck is to abuse the core generation that the mermaid trio provides. There is a big problem with that idea: three card combos are very difficult to pull off. This is especially true when your deck has very little draw. I set myself to the task of fixing that problem. The solution I came across was to stall. My idea centers around the ability to stall the opponent until I am able to abuse the combo.


How It Works!

Did you think I would give you a list and not tell you how to use it? I am certainly not that cruel! The deck is centered around being able to generate cores to play high-costing spells and spirits. You will not be able to play your trio combo often to generate cores. I haven't done it once. It will happen once in a blue moon. You're probably scratching your head now, asking yourself, "How am I going to generate a lot of cores if I can't use the combo?" The simple answer is to stall. You will stall until you are able to get the cores to play the cards you need to play. I know how that sounds, but trust me on this one. It will work if you play it properly!

Transition into Mid Game

Your first couple of turns will be a little daunting. Hope and pray that you draw into The Buckler Langlies or Sphereroid. These cards should allow you to stall until you reach the mid game. If worse comes to worse, you can make use of Storm Draw to get the cards you need. Try to save this card for the mid game. That's not to say that playing it early will hurt your chances of winning; Storm Draw will aid you in getting Buckler, Sphereroid, Ur-Dine, and other useful cards into your hand. Do not hesitate to make use of it if the situation calls for it.


You should do your best to make use of Ur-Dine to speed up the deck. The more cores you have the better. Your mid game cards are expensive to play, and Ur-Dine will help you get those cards onto the field quicker. A good way to use Ur-Dine is to bait your opponent into an attack. Here is an example where you go first: Play something that your opponent will not have any problem attacking. All spirits on your opponent's side of the field will then be exhausted. Throw down Ur-Dine on your second turn and swing without worrying. This way you gain the cores you need and deal damage to your opponent.

There is one last thing you need to set up your mid game. Achieve maximum cost reduction by playing a good foundation of spirits and nexus. You're going to be in trouble if you cannot make full use of cost reduction. I know this is going to be difficult against some decks. Do your best to block instead of taking damage to your life. Timeless Ice Field will help you out a bit here; giving you an extra 1000 battle points when blocking is useful. You can also pick off your opponent's weak spirits with its level two ability. These tips should keep your spirits on the field for the mid game.

Hit 'Em Hard in Mid Game

This deck becomes a lot of fun once you reach the mid game. The SeaCreature Dugong is your heaviest hitter. Get this guy out as soon as you can to start hurting your opponent's field. He costs an arm and a leg to get onto the field. I'm thankful that they made the cost of leveling him up very cheap. Four cores for 8000 battle points is a great trade-off. I'm sure you have realized by now that Ver-Thania works with this card. You're going to be continually attacking with your SeaCreature. That means that blocking with him will not happen unless you have Pure Elixir. You can also let Ver-Thania block and refresh him. This should amount to the destruction of more spirits on your opponent's side of the field.

Play down as much defense as you can. The SilverFox Hati is a great defensive card. He reduces to a cost of 2 and his level up cost is very cheap. Keep in mind that your defense can also be treated as your offense: Pure Elixir will allow you to attack and defend on your opponent's turn. Don't be shy to attack when you have Pure Elixir in your hand. Silent Wall can also be used for this purpose.

The Timeless Ice Field is a card you'll want to take full advantage of. Put this card at level two as soon as you can. Start forcing your opponent to attack with spirits they would rather not attack with. This will slowly remove problem spirits from your opponent's side of the field. Your defensive and offensive guys all have extremely high battle points. They should be able to deal with a lot of threats by abusing your nexus.

Skuldia is a very important piece of this deck. Your opponent will start pulling out problem spirits around this time in the game. Skuldia needs to be used to stop those spirits from becoming a big issue. Have this spirit keep those spirits from attacking. That should prevent them from becoming a nuisance. You can also put Skuldia up to level three to refresh and re-use her on your turn. You always have the option of refreshing, attacking, and using her effect on the same card. The difference is you were able to deal damage or destroy a spirit in the process. I'd be happy with that trade-off.

ShieldSpirit Dis is one of those cards that could be treated as a finisher. This deck treats her as a setup and pressure card. You want to force the opponent to lose enough life to use one of your finisher cards. ShieldSpirit Dis is an extremely good card for doing that. Attack with ShieldSpirit Dis as often as you can. Your opponent will be forced to use up two blockers if they choose to block her. This will allow you to plow through your opponent's defense and hit their life. You can use her second effect to refresh a spirit on your side. That will come in handy when finishing your opponent. For instance, you could refresh a spirit you've used Invisible Cloak on. This will allow you to deal twice the damage. You can also use it with The DragonTank EarthGuard to have him attack twice.

High Elixir is an extremely useful card in this deck. I said before that you need to stall in order for the deck to be effective. High Elixir helps you in that respect. You will be taking a lot of damage to your life early in the game. I would normally regard that as a bad thing. However High Elixir saves you from suffering too much. Gaining back two life after being beaten into the ground is nothing to scoff at. Replenishing your life severely limits your opponent's options at this point in the game. I recommend saving this card for turns when you desperately need your life back. This card will buy you that extra turn you need to defeat the opponent!


"Finish Him!"
I'm aware it is an incredibly lame joke. There are times when I am playing that I reach a point where I am able to defeat my opponent. At this time, I always think of Mortal Kombat. The scene where you have defeated your opponent and the screen flashes "Finish Him!" That is one of the greatest moments in the game for me. Might as well transition the idea into Battle Spirits.

We've reached the "Finish Him!" moment and you're wondering what exactly this deck has to rip the opponent's heart out. I'm glad you asked because I was wondering that myself. No, not really. This deck sports two cards that you can use to finish your opponent. Some may argue that they have the ability to rip the opponent's heart out. I have seen some reactions to the playing of these cards that might attest to that. We are going to play them regardless of the opponent's pain or reaction to them. The cards we have at our disposal are The DragonTank EarthGuard and Invisible Cloak.

I'm sure you can venture a guess as to why these are the finisher cards. You're right if your guess was that they are able to deal direct damage. As simple as that is, these cards embody the "Finish Him!" moment for us. Hopefully you'll have dealt a good amount of damage in the mid and early game. That will allow you to go for the win on the same turn you play these cards.

Improving The Deck

I'm not going to pretend that this is the best build for this deck. It is a build that works. I can attest to that because I have beaten people using it. A big problem for this deck is speed. It has a lot of trouble keeping up with rush, Green, and Purple speed decks. You can fix this by running more low cost spirits. Make sure these spirits can hold their own. A spirit with low battle points is useless in the early game. You want spirits who can attack and block without worrying.

There are a couple of cards that I thought about using but never got around to trying them. The CrystalGoddess Freyr and Immunity cards are the two big ones. Freyr would help against speedy decks by stalling the opponent. This would allow you to catch up to the opponent when you fall behind. Immunity cards are an obvious choice. Who wouldn't want to be impervious to all opponent effects? It would help the finishers and core generation combo. Having the opponent destroy your trio before you get all three out happens very often. Being immune to opponent's effects would solve that problem. I recommend giving these ideas a try. However, it is going to be difficult to attain the immunity cards you need. That is especially true for the White X-Rare from Set 3. That is a card you would want to attain three of for this deck.


Tier 2 Deck

I believe this is a tier 2 deck despite all the good things I have said about it. It does, however, have the ability to defeat tier 1 decks. You will need knowledge of the current meta and how it operates in order to do that. I'm a firm believer that people can beat tier 1 decks if they have the knowledge to do it. You are now equipped to take on your local with a Mermaid deck! Go out and show people that a tier 2 deck can win. Be sure to rub it in their face when you win... I'm kidding. Don't be a poor sport (but a small arm flex gesture after your dominating win wouldn't be over the top). Good luck to everyone in their deck building ventures!

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